City emergency management director Merrick Brown presents to city council in this March file photo.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The City of Medicine Hat says it will likely know early next week how to implement a “vaccine restriction-exemption” program outlined by the province on Wednesday night.
It would allow those who can prove double vaccination status to access some services, while those without may be refused entry to certain non-essential activities or services.
Merrick Brown, the city’s director of emergency management, said administrators are still determining the implications and how to operate city facilities under the new rules
“It’s short notice but … we want to have a thoughtful approach, which we’ve tried to have over the last 19 months,” he told the News on Thursday.
The province made the announcement Wednesday, declaring a public health emergency, and brought in new rules attempting to limit new infections of the coronavirus, which have risen to the highest level in Canada since early August.
It is also aimed at increasing vaccination levels to prevent cases advancing to severe stages.
The city is still awaiting what constitutes proof of vaccination (a card is available from a health records website, but a QR code for smart phones is also being developed), what proves a medical or religious exemption.
The process my be done at the door or ahead of time, he added.
The city will also train staff on requirements and implementation as well as how to deal with potential conflicts with customers, said Brown.
Other restrictions on capacity will apply to cultural, recreation and any public facility with the exception of city hall, said Brown.
That means changes to how fitness classes are operated, how many people can attend shows or be present for indoor youth sports.
The Medicine Hat Tigers will host their first pre-season game Saturday at city-owned Co-op Place, which seats 6,100, but will be subject to a province-wide restriction on crowds to one-third seating capacity whether the attendees are vaccinated or not. The regular season home opener is set for Oct. 2.
Similarly, the Esplanade Theatre announced earlier this month it would leave the decision on vaccine verification to the wishes of specific artists. The only performance in the near future to come under that policy was the Nov. 20 show by musical act City and Colour.
Brown expects a full announcement on Monday, but said in terms of the city operations, they have been performing well throughout the fourth wave.
When the province rescinded almost all health measures in early July, corporate policy at city hall kept in place some health protocol measures.
“(Internally) it should be easy for us to pivot to these new guidelines, but that’s apart from our public facing services,” he said.
Brown said the city maintained its own internal contact tracing system and tracked absenteeism among staff. That has increased, but due to workplace isolation protocols in cases of close contact rather than higher cases.
“We have yet to record a case of transmission in our workplaces, which we are quite proud of,” he said.
